Soft Squidgy Kneidles/Alkies and Locksen

Hi.. I mentioned Kneidles/Alkies and Locksen yesterday, for the golden Chicken Soup, Kneidles also known as Matzo Balls or Alkies in our household are made from Matzo meal, eggs, water and a bit of seasoning. Really easy to do, needs a bit of elbow grease and dirty hands but definitely worth the trouble, no chicken soup is complete without it.
I make mine with 3 eggs and Rakusen's Fine Matzo Meal you can get it in Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Ocado and most big supermarket chain or online, again, it's all in the recipe, there are 27 different ways being passed down from generations of how to make the lovely, soft, squidgy balls, mine came from my mother in law originally and I started trying it in the kitchen and adapted it to my liking but always "it's almost as good as Mum's" as Jonny always like to tease me :)))

Kneidles/Matzo Balls/Alkies

Preparation & Cooking time 30 minutes
Makes 20 medium Matzo Balls/ Kneidles/Alkies
Ingredients:
3 Eggs
200gr Rakusen's Fine Matzo Meal
300ml Water
a pinch of sea salt and ground white pepper
A big pot of boiling water on the medium hob to boil the rolled Matzo balls.
Recipes:
Beat the eggs in a big mixing bowl, pour the water in and seasoning and carry on beating until everything is well mixed, you can just used a fork and beat it like you would to make scrambled egg or omelette, I like to put seasoning in the mixture rather than in the boiling water, I think it makes it much tastier. When the eggs, seasoning and water are well mixed, pour the fine matzo meal in the mixture and using the same fork mix it really well. The mixture at this point should resemble a gooey sticky dough. Dip your hands in a bowl of cold water, take a spoonful of dough and roll it into a ball and drop it in the boiling water. The secret is to always keep your hands wet the moisture keeps the dough from sticking and makes rolling and dropping a lot easier. When it's cooked the Matzo balls will start floating to the water surface, you can at this point fish it out keep it in a bowl ready for later, I happen to like putting it in my pot of simmering chicken soup for the last 30 minutes, it will expand to greatness and absorb all the tasty flavour and goodness of the soup and keeps from my husband whose favourite past time since he could reach the kitchen side was to sneak a few Alkies at the time for his snack and leaving my mother in law panicking because there wasn't enough Alkies for all the 27 guests she had invited for Friday Night Dinner.

Lokscen

Locksen is the pasta/noodles like accompaniments for the Chicken Soup, there's many different brands and shape and width, my favourite ones is Manischewitz Fine Premium Egg Noodles, can be bought in all big supermarket chain, or Kosher Shops and Delis in North Manchester I go to Cooper's on Bury Old Rd, Halpern's on Leicester Rd or Boyko's on Windsor Rd a few shop away from Vidal's the Best Butcher in town!!!
It takes literally 10 minutes to make, all you need is 150gr of Locksen and a pot of boiling water on the medium hob, put the dried Locksen in, watch it boil away and after 5 minutes take it off the hob and strain it through a fine colander, that's got to be easy??? You do have to stand there and watch it boil though, my first few batches of Locksen came out too soft and overcooked, you want yours to be al dente, soft but still has a bite to it. Locksen you can set a side and put about one tablespoon worth into individual bowls, it will be safe from Jonny, he's not into cold Locksen.